The Rise of K-Pop in the West

It is undeniable that music has a unique way of connecting
people. As today’s technology improves connectivity throughout the world every
day, it seems that it also holds an infinite amount of different kind of media
such as music accessible for everyone, anywhere. It is pretty obvious that this
connectivity created by music is visible for people such as for K-pop (short
for Korean-pop) fans screaming their heart out singing their favorite artists’
song despite not speaking the same language. This proves that music speaks no
language and could be delivered, making someone feel something without paying
attention to the lyrics.

K-pop or Hallyu wave has always been there, building for about a couple of decades, but K-pop in particular has been increasingly visible to worldwide audiences since the past 10 years. But how did it really become what it is today since yesterday, especially when talking about hitting the Western market with its waves?

When you would ask some people nowadays about this culture,
there is a high probability that the first thing that you would hear coming
from their mouths is BTS (a Korean boy-band) and how they hit the Billboards,
topping the chart every time they release a single or even an album despite
coming from a different country than the usual music artists topping the
charts. People might think they know a thing or two after answering your
question, but the truth is there is so much more to know about K-pop other than
that. Like the now-disbanded Korean girl group who first cracked the Western
market with their crossover hit entitled “Nobody” on 2009, and “Gangnam Style”
that was released by the Korean male artist, Psy that broke the record of being
the first ever music video on Youtube hitting one billion views, surpassing
Justin Bieber “Baby” on 2012.

People Loving The K-Pop Popularity

Since then, there has been a lot of K-pop artists who have
been trying to get in to the Western market, trying too hard and too soon,
recording an English version of their hits to appeal to global audiences but
have failed to take off which is different from how the current K-pop groups
who have been ruling the Western market through continuing singing in their
native language while embracing the usual pop in other ways to be more
appealing, releasing music that are so good that you can play it on repeat not
minding the lyrics and what it says.

Another unique thing about the K-pop culture that might also
be the one that helped them to take a step forward into entering the global
market is its way of approaching music videos. Delivering a distinctive blend
and melodies, impressive choreography and production values, and indefinite
amount of attractive South Korean artist in parade, has a talent that is really
good as they look due to spending years behind the stage practicing and
learning both how to sing and dance, or even act in perfection, making them
dominate the industries, from entertainment, cosmetics, and every possible
corner that they could.